Chapter 28: Investigation
Nighttime, deep in the quiet hours.
Ji Ma spread her wings and glided over the gray and white treetops.
“I am so diligent; while everyone else is sleeping, I am on patrol.”
In a clearing ahead, dozens of softly glowing “dream balloons” clustered together. Ji Ma landed lightly on a branch, crouched down, and looked below. She raised her index finger and counted:
“One, two, three… one hundred and eight…”
“Are they humans or beastmen? According to the soldier’s intel, we are quite far from the battlefield; they shouldn’t be beastmen.” Ji Ma muttered to herself, concentrating hard as she focused on one dream balloon.
The blurry images inside the dream balloon became clearer, as if wiping fog off a screen. The dream was bloody and from a first-person perspective, showing a militiaman lying on the ground, his lips pale as he trembled and begged for mercy, while the dream’s master grabbed his arm and bit into it.
Ji Ma felt a wave of nausea rise from her full stomach, and she shifted her gaze.
“They must be beastmen; they always view humans as food.”
Confirming their identity, Ji Ma kicked off with her legs and flapped her wings, soaring into the air while memorizing the surrounding terrain.
“The valley, a tree… the title can be ‘September 3rd Night, One Hundred and Eight Beastmen at Liangshan.’ Done.”
Ji Ma documented the terrain in her system. When she looked up, she saw another cluster of dream balloons in the distance.
“Humans? Beastmen?”
She flew over and, after flying for about three miles, a large group of dream balloons appeared below her. She stopped on a branch to catch her breath and counted:
“One, two, three… ninety-eight; alright, more beastmen.”
Sitting on the branch, Ji Ma caught her breath but began to feel something was off: “Why are there so many beastmen around here?”
The destination was Dead Wood Mountain; Ji Ma had been inspired that she could find key clues for extracting the extraordinary substance from the green dragon there. According to the plan, the army wouldn’t reach Dead Wood Mountain for another three days, but there were indeed too many beastmen around here.
Ji Ma flipped through her system records. “Did the soldier not say that Dead Wood Mountain was only near the battlefield? How do I feel like I’ve already fallen into the beastmen’s battlefield?”
After taking a short rest on a light gray branch, Ji Ma continued to fly in the air, circling while recording the nearby terrain, and naturally documenting it in her system.
“The title will be ‘Ninety-Eight Walking Experience Packs’; anyway, it doesn’t matter for George and the others, these beastmen are no issue.” Just as Ji Ma finished recording that, she happened to fly over a hill and saw a large bright cluster in the distance, a huge pile of “dream balloons.”
She flapped her wings and flew over, crossing hills and forests. After nearly half an hour, Ji Ma, out of breath, soared over the hill, revealing a mass of dream balloons below.
Ji Ma’s expression changed slightly as she gracefully landed on a branch, catching her breath for a moment.
The dense mass of “dream balloons” below almost triggered her claustrophobia; there were at least a small regiment down there.
“Looking on the bright side, maybe this is a human brigade chasing beastmen.”
She glanced around; the surrounding area was filled with dense woods. A human army wouldn’t be foolish enough to camp deep in a forest; it was too laborious and unproductive.
Ji Ma first focused on one dream balloon and observed the contents of the dream.
It was also from a first-person perspective; in front of her, a wooden wall of a human village had a breach, and the dream’s master followed a group of horned beastmen through the opening.
“I remember from the map that the army will pass through a village; it seems that village has met with misfortune.”
Ji Ma shifted her gaze. She knew that beastmen referred to human settlements as “meat stores,” those surrounded by wooden walls were called “wooden meat stores,” those surrounded by stone walls were “stone meat stores,” and cities were called “great stone meat stores.”
She raised her index finger to begin counting: “One, two, three, four…”
As she got further along, she grew impatient and leaped from the branch, diving into a dream balloon.
It felt like diving into a cloud; suddenly, the scenery shifted below to an endless ground, where a village had been engulfed by brown beastmen. Ji Ma swooped down like an eagle, landing on a watchtower in the village.
The tower’s peak was thatched with dry grass, and a nimble horned beastman used a spear to stab a militiaman, sending him crashing into the beastman horde. A group of strong and tall beastmen rushed towards the militiaman, tearing off his limbs, eating them while chewing and brandishing axes at the terrified villagers.
Unlike the thin and short horned beastmen, horned beastmen combined the strengths of both human and beast, possessing the strength of beasts and the wisdom of humans.
The remaining humans retreated into the stone chapel in the village to fight for survival. The door was blocked by stones, and many spears and pitchforks extended from the narrow windows, as archers continually shot arrows from the second floor. The stubbornly charging horned beastmen suffered dozens of casualties momentarily.
The horned beastmen stopped the horned leader and first instructed their companions to drag the still-alive humans to the chapel nearby, where they were directly bitten and shared among the beastmen.
The cries of their dying companions and the overwhelm of beastmen surrounding them filled the humans trapped inside the chapel with despair. Ji Ma witnessed an old soldier wearing a pot helmet, his lips pale from fear, clearly the one who had been leading them.
Next to him, a villager holding a spear cowered, covering his head and crying in terror, an adult weeping like a child.
The old soldier waved his hand, still trying to rally the remaining people:
“This is the chapel of the goddess; the goddess of the lake will surely protect us.”
“We have no way out; better to die fighting than be eaten alive.”
Hope gradually returned to the humans’ eyes. Many of them had been mere farmers, witnessing their homes destroyed and their families consumed, and in their despair, hatred was born.
“The Blood God above,” Ji Ma expressed, referring to one of the demonic gods, “He must love these farmers.”
But then a voice was heard below, a horned beast shouted: “I promise… you surrender… and we’ll let you go…”
The humans looked down in disbelief; the horned beastmen lowered their bows.
“… We… just need… to break the statue,” the horned beast continued in a clumsy accent, “We are full… we don’t want to die…”
In the humans’ eyes, the hope of fighting to the death transformed into a desperate longing for survival.
Voices of argument arose from the chapel roof, some wanted to open the door to escape, while others insisted on staying.
At this moment, the beastmen retreated like a tide, pulling back far away and clearing a path. The arguments grew louder until finally the door opened, and a group of humans carefully stepped out, only for the door to close behind them as they ran toward the breach in the wooden wall without any obstruction.
The humans in the chapel grew restless; seeing the first group escape the village and run into the wilderness, fleeing their fallen home.
Ji Ma looked at the centaur-like beastmen among the horde of beastmen and shook her head. These creatures, with four hooves, the lower body of a horse and the upper body of a beastman, resembled cavalry; the first group was merely bait to confuse the human army.
Sure enough, the dispute inside the chapel leaned heavily:
“The goddess never protects farmers; she only protects noble knights; why should we stay here?”
The door opened, and a group of people joyfully squeezed out.
Suddenly, the beastmen surged forward, axes striking the faces of the humans wearing smiles of survival.
In the chapel, several horned beastmen surrounded the old soldier, the only human resisting. The old soldier grabbed the knife in his hand and plunged it viciously into his own neck.
In the distance, a group of centaur-like beastmen gradually caught up with the fleeing humans.
Ji Ma flew up from the watchtower and landed beside an excited horned beastman, who had just suggested deceiving the humans. Ji Ma noted its physical features and inquired about the number of this beastman tribe.
Ji Ma calmly recorded: “A total of over a thousand, with about fifty centaur-like beastmen; the horned ones are quite cunning.”
Below her, filled with the lamenting cries of humans regretting their impending death.
